WASHINGTON – Groups demonstrating against global warming and war snarled traffic Monday on Capitol Hill, leading to dozens of arrests.
U.S. Capitol Police pulled apart protesters who sat in the road with legs and arms intertwined during the morning rush hour near the intersection of Independence and New Jersey avenues. More than two dozen protesters were dragged onto the sidewalks, handcuffed and loaded onto a bus.
About a dozen protesters also were arrested Monday morning for blocking the entrance of the Cannon House Office Building.
The protests were part of a series of demonstrations that have taken place in Washington since Friday, the first day of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Monday's demonstrations, which involved several hundred people, were part of a "No Warming, No War" protest, which combined an environmental agenda with an anti-war stand.
The crowd included five protesters wearing polar bear suits and carrying a sign that read "Polar bears for solutions to war and global warming."
"Our military uses huge amounts of fossil fuels in a war that is immoral, illegal and unwinnable," said Sarah Rose-Jensen, of Arlington, Va.
Across town near the White House, street closings remained in effect Monday around the offices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
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